Western American literature is populated with horses, cattle,buffalo, wolves, bears, coyotes, birds, and snakes--animals whosepresences help define Western narratives and who are essential to themythology of the West. This panel seeks presentations thatforeground the roles of animals in their interpretations of textsabout the American West.

For example, this panel is interested in presentations that consider:

---the relationship between animals and myths of the West in fiction,nonfiction, or film;---the roles of individual animals in narrative plots;---how certain species come to represent the very West itself;---animals who complicate binaries like wild/domestic or natural/cultural;---other uses of animal presences in literature or other media aboutthe West.